Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1887-11-05

hcyS IOF tnt uclcllSe. ilat spies
had no hand n the terrible events
Of the night is abundantly proven.
At the outset of his speech he repu-
dated all ideas of violence, and his
remark that che thought it was a
cannon" made to his brother when
the bomb exploded, proves that he
was ignorant of any intention to use
dynamite.
The lIaymarket circular was said
to conclude in these words: "Work-
lngmen, arm yourselves and appear
in full force" Now, it is a matter
of record that Spies ordered that line
stricken out. He stated as his reas-
ons for doing so, "because thought
it was ridiculous to put u phrase in
which would prevent people from at
tending the meeting and possibly
provoke all attack by the police
Thus it will be seen that the as
sumption of the supreme court that
Spies was one of the conspirators
and actually assisted in throwing the
bomb is not founded upon the evi-
dence nor upon facts.
1t is perfectly clear from the
abundance of testimony that Fischer
was not at the IIaymarket at the
time of the raid by the police Yet
the supreme court assumes that he
was, and that he also stood by Spies
and Schnaubelt when the bomb was
thrown, The fact is that there is
absolutely nothing proven against
Fischer except that when ar
rested he had in his posses
sion a revolver end sharpened file,
and that he was at the Monday night
meeting (presided over by Waller),
and had charge of the business of
calling the IIaymarket meeting to-
gether. Terrible crimes to convict
q man Of murde for
Oscar Necbe has already COM
menced to serve his long term as a
convict; and for what? He was not
at the Haymarket; did not know of
the meeting being held there. He
was proven to have had nothing to
do with the Monday night "conspir-
acy." The record will show hat the
only testimony against him was that
proving him to have had in his gos-
session a few copies Of the ''revenge
CIRCULAR" that he went il to one sa-
loon, and showing a copy of the cir
cular, remarked: "It is ia shame that
the police act this way (alluding to
the shooting of strikers at McCorm-
ick's), but may be the time comes
that it goes the other way-that they
get the chance, too" This is all,
except the additional "crime" of
having at his house an old rusty
sword, a gun and a small red flag.
And yet for this poor Neebe must
stay in Joliet fifteen years. For this
did | say? No, not for this. In
the eyes of these capitalistic conspir-
ators he was guilty of greater crimes.
lie was an organizer of labor, lead
er and a friend of his fellow workers.
lie had organized the brewers and
the bakers Of this city, and had been
mainly instrumental in securing for
them better pay and less hours. He
had been an active Socialist for years,
and for these grave offences (:) he
was picked out to be made an eX-
ample of.
Said Grinnell to the jury, "These
men are no more guilty than the
thousands who follow them; hang
them and our society is safe. X + +
This is a trial of anar( by and social
ism, and for the life of anarchy and
socialism.
This is the gist of the matter.
Not one of these defendants was
proven to have had anything to do
with the IIaymarket tragedy. Lingg
knew nothing of the meeting until
he saw the advertisement in the
.lrJeiter Zei'ang at eleven o'clock
that eycning-an hour after the riot
had occurred. Parsons and Fischer
were at Zepf's hall, on their way
home. Engell was at home drink
ing beer with some friends, and when
notified of the terrible event of the
evening by Waller, strongly con-
demned the act. Fielden was Just
about to close hisspeech and adjourn
the meeting. In five minutes more
everybody would have gone peaceably